Last updated: September 15, 2026 · Effective: September 15, 2026
TheSpeculatorsJournal ("we", "us", "our") operates the trading journal platform at thespeculatorsjournal.com. We provide tools for traders to log, analyse, and improve their trading performance.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect information when you use our website and services.
Account information: When you register, we collect your first name, last name, and email address. Your password is stored as a one-way bcrypt hash — we cannot read it.
Trade data: All trade entries you log manually or import from brokers (IBKR, Binance, Coinbase, etc.) are stored in our database. This includes entry/exit prices, position sizes, P&L, dates, and any notes or screenshots you attach.
Usage and signup-location data: We log basic server access data (IP address, browser type, pages visited) for security and debugging. When an account is created, we also retain the signup IP address and an approximate country inferred locally from that address using the MaxMind GeoLite2 Country database. For accounts created before we recorded this, the approximate country is instead inferred once from the IP address used at your next sign-in; that sign-in IP address is not retained. This does not provide a precise address or GPS location. We use this information for security, fraud prevention, and aggregate signup analytics. We also use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site and app are used in aggregate — which pages are visited and which features are used. We do not send your signup IP, trade data, journal entries, or financial figures to Google Analytics.
Referral and attribution data: If you arrive through an affiliate link or a campaign link, we store the referring code or campaign name so the referring partner can be credited. See Cookies below.
Payment data: We do not store payment card details. Payments are processed by third-party payment providers who handle billing data under their own privacy policies.
Communications: If you contact us by email, we retain that correspondence to respond to you.
We use your data exclusively to:
We do not sell your trade data, analyse it for our own commercial benefit, or use it to train any AI model of our own.
One exception you should know about — the AI Coach. The AI Coach is an optional feature. When you ask it for an analysis, the trade data needed to answer that request is sent to our AI provider, DeepSeek, which generates the response and returns it. This happens only when you actively use the feature — never in the background, and never for users who do not use it. If you would rather no trade data ever leave our systems, simply do not use the AI Coach; every other feature works without it.
Your data is stored on servers hosted in a secured environment. We implement the following security measures:
Despite our efforts, no method of internet transmission is 100% secure. We encourage you to use a strong, unique password for your account.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party.
We may share data only in these limited circumstances:
Essential cookies — these are required for the site to work:
PHPSESSID — keeps you logged in. Set only after you log in; HttpOnly (inaccessible to JavaScript); SameSite=Lax; deleted when you log out or close your browser.stj_lang — remembers your chosen language. Expires after one year.Attribution cookies — these credit the partner or campaign that referred you. They contain a referral code or campaign name, not personal data:
stj_ref — affiliate referral code. Expires after 60 days.stj_utm — the campaign or referring site you first arrived from. Expires after 30 days.Analytics cookies — Google Analytics 4 sets its own cookies (_ga and similar) to measure aggregate site usage.
We do not use advertising cookies or re-targeting pixels, and we do not sell data to advertisers. You can block or delete any of these in your browser; blocking the essential cookies will stop you being able to log in.
You have the right to:
To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@thespeculatorsjournal.com.
We retain your account and trade data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will permanently delete all associated data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it by law (e.g. financial records for tax purposes).
Server access logs are retained for a maximum of 90 days.
TheSpeculatorsJournal is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before any material changes take effect. Continued use of the service after that date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
The "Last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the most recent revision.
For privacy-related questions, data requests, or to report a security issue:
We aim to respond to all privacy requests within 5 business days.